Twelve of the top officers at Thomas Cook managed to take home a hefty sum of $25m, while the holiday company went under a whopping $2bn debt.
The collapse of Thomas Cook has resulted in 21,000 employees being jobless all over the world, out of which 9,000 are from England alone.
In addition to that, more than 150,000 travelers are stuck abroad not knowing what to do and how to get back home.
People who started their journey with Thomas Cook to have a memorable Honeymoon or to have a destination wedding are stuck at a number of places across the globe without a clue about what to do next.
Some unfortunate people are even running out of life-saving medication.
The Daily Telegraph has revealed how Dr. Peter Fankhauser, the chief executive of Thomas Cook in Switzerland since 2014, made a whopping $10m over the five years he worked with the company.
A total of $25m was paid by Thomas Cook to the top-level officers during the last five years.
Dr. Peter’s fortune came from a staggering $3.6m bonus he received back in 2015 while he drew a salary of $855,450 in 2014, which got incremented to $907,640 in the last year.
The former head of operations in Switzerland, Harriet Green, who was replaced by Dr. Peter in 2014, described herself in an interview with The Times as a “landa,” which according to her is a cross between a lion and a panda.
This was to describe her gentle yet aggressive management practices.
Harriet said: “Sometimes I am a real lion. I can roar, make things happen, I can change the course through will, energy and just being incredibly aggressive and assertive.
“But I can also be a big panda. If a company is sick, you have to be gentler – big eyes, big hugs.”
Other than Dr. Peter, the chief financial officers, Bill Scott and Michael Healy, got a total pay of $9m in the last 5 years.
Above $5m was also shared among the non-executive directors of the company during the same time period.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Harriet got a $7m bonus in 2015. She donated one-third of the amount to the parents of two children who died while on holiday with the company.
Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, said in a statement that she’ll have the Insolvency Service carry out the investigation into the collapse of Thomas Cook on ASAP basis.
The statement from the department of transportation said: “The investigation will also consider the conduct of the directors.”
According to the statement of Dr. Peter, the company went to all lengths to get a bail-out package but failed.
Peter said: “I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and will cause a lot of anxiety, stress and disruption. I would like to apologize to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years.”
The Sun reached out to Dr. Peter to get his views on the whole situation but he directed the questions to the Insolvency Service.
The Insolvency Service told The Sun: “The Official Receiver has a duty to investigate the causes of failure of the company, including the conduct of directors, as part of the liquidation process.
“The Official Receiver has wide-ranging powers to obtain the information he needs to complete these investigations.”
Thomas Cook was the world’s longest operating travel agency, which operated for 178 years, and then collapsed because they failed to pay $300m to the creditors.
Replaced!